Memories of life in Ilasco include the smell of hot homemade bread from outdoor brick ovens; rides from the concrete bridge to movies at the Star, Rialto, or Orpheum Theater; three-day wedding celebrations with music, food, homemade wine, and beer; Frank Cable of Cable's Store helping immigrants obtain citizenship papers; haircuts at Lee Cooper's Barbershop; choosing between a Pepsi, Snicker, or ice cream bar with only a nickel to spend; reading the Ilasco High School newspaper The Howler for school and community news; card games and drinks in the back room of Al's Tavern; the church bell announcing a death in the community; shopping for canning supplies at Stephen's Store and penny candy at Oslica's Store in Monkey Run; appreciation for teachers at Ilasco, Marble Creek, and Monkey Run; basketball on a dirt court before the Ilasco School Gymnasium was built; Slovak Summer School taught by St. Louis Slovak Seminary students; after-school treats at Omie and Rex Tatman's Grocery Store in the 1960s; waiting for mail at the Post Office after the train dropped off the mail pouch at the Ilasco red depot; ice cream, cake, games of chance, and Bingo at the Ilasco Holy Cross Ice Cream Social; Saturday nights at Al's Tavern with a nickel pinball machine and jitterbugging to the jukebox; and working the graveyard shift at the cement plant. A chemist at the Atlas Plant gave Ilasco its name from the ingredients used to make cement: iron, lime, aluminum, silica, calcium, and oxygen.